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Vintage Amateur and Military RadioAmateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

Like you Tim, I've been a keen home-brewer since the mid 1950s, and I've never tried to emulate commercially made equipment, because we don't have the resources to do that, and we'll always fall short. The benchmark I've always used is to try to attain the highest homebrew standards within the limit of my skills and resources, and to never make anything that I'd be embarrassed to take the cover off.

Using that benchmark, what you've designed and built is superb - the 'real deal'. Perverse as it may sound, I think if you were to powder coat it, would actually detract rather than enhance the appearance. It would look more 'Panda Cub' and less 'G4WIM', if that makes any sense.

Wonderful to know that while home-brew amateur radio is in inexorable decline, it's not yet extinct!

If you do paint/powder it remember to put some masking-tape along the faces where the grilles attach to the plates, and along the faces of the plates where they're screwed to each-other. You wouldn't want to go and destroy all that nice screening by an insulating layer between the parts.

Personally I'd go for black wrinkle-finish as found on 1940s HROs etc.

It's obviously very subjective, but personally I think I would go for a light grey or silver (satin?) finish Tim. That would make it look 'finished' and cover any marks, and provide a contrast with the excellent front panel.

One question that's hard to answer is that of how that surface will age; will it stay much the same or could it start to look less appealing?

I'm not a fan of powder coating. As, suggested, anodising could be good. As for paints, I had some really good results on aluminium using an etch primer from a company called Clostermann and would certainly use them again.

I think that one big advantage of painting is that if you don't like what you end up with, or it gets damaged, then it is easy to re-work. That is less true of powder coating or anodising.

Nice job!

B

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Data beats opinions most times... that's my opinion, though I have no data on that.

The trick is to ensure two things, that the aluminium is treated with Alodine or similar (used in the aviation industry to prime aluminium, it leaves it with a matt yellow finish) and that you use a high temperature enamel paint that you can bake in your own home oven, I used VHT machinery grey spray paint.

The result is great, exactly like a commercial finish and scratch resistant with good adhesion thanks to the primer.

Anodizing can look fantastic when new, but when scratched it is a cosmetic nightmare and does not lend itself well to touch up repairs, unlike paint.

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